304 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
A. F. Bemis, of Bemis Bros. Bag Co., Boston, Mass., said:

The opening of the opportunity to combine for purposes of export trade
would probably be one method of increasing that efficiency, although I assume
:hat considerable care would have to be taken that those opportunities should
aot be extended unduly to domestic trade. I would assume that more or less
care would have to be taken in the framing of any legislation to guard against
the undue growth of monopoly in our domestic commerce.
# * » J have no details or specific suggestions, only this: That, through
your Commission, which would have the supervision of both lines of trade, I
assume that you would be able to regulate the conduct of business, both foreign
and domestic, so that there would be really very little of this danger to which
I call attention.

7. ESSENTIAL FACTORS IN THE EXPORT TRADE,
(a) Effects of Tariff.
Relative to English competition in Canada, Charles Piez, president
of the Link Belt Co., Chicago, I1l., said:

In Canada we meet English competition very largely, because there is a preferential
 duty there in favor of England, so we have that to contend with. Recently
 we have established our own plants in Canada in order to put ourselves
on more nearly an equal.basis with the English and Canadian competition.
Joseph N. Teal, counsel of the West Coast Lumber Manufacturers’
Association, Portland, Oreg., said:
Back in South Africa to-day there is a 10 per cent preferential tariff against
our lumber in favor of British Columbia. In New Zealand on certain manu-Pactured
 products there is a 10 per cent preferential tariff. And I say (they
are matters of public documents; there is no secrecy about it) that British
Columbia to-day is laying the foundation for the securing of further preferential
tariffs between constituent parts of the British Empire.
Edward T. Hendee, secretary of Joseph T. Ryerson &amp; Son, Chicago,
 Ill., manufacturers of metal and steel machinery, in speaking
of the advantage in tariffs which certain countries-enjoy. said:

Germany has a preferential tariff agreement with Austria and Hungary,
whereby the duty into those countries on machinery is 20 kronen per 100 kilograms,
 whereas our duty for entrance into those countries is 29 kronen per 100
kilograms, or half as much again.
Similarly, Germany has had reciprocal arrangements with Italy.
From the United States into Canada the duty on machine tools is 20% per
rent ad valorem. as against England’s preferential duty of 173% ad valorem.

i

The present treaty between Russia and Germany, which was entered into at
the beginning of the Russian-Japanese War, permits the entrance of German
goods into Russia on the basis of a duty which, in the case of machinery, figures
out at about 15 per cent ad valorem, as against a duty which figures out, in
the case of other countries, including the United States, to about 60 per cent.
For instance, on a machine which we export very largely and which sells
in this country for approximately $3,000, the duty into Russian is $1,800, as
against Germany’s duty of $450. This is equally true of all other lines, and is
largely responsible for German exports into Russia in 1913 of nearly $260,-)00,000,
 or about seven times the exports of the United States into that same
sountry.

The discriminating arrangement which resulted from the Russian-Japanese
War has given Germany that market absolutely, and we feel that to-day would
be the opportune time for this country to try to get on the same basis as other
;ountries, without exception, into Russia, and that if this is left undone it may
be that the outcome of the war will force certain treaties with trade clauses in
them that will be very much against the interests of this country.